Posted on July, 16, 2019 at 09:52 am
By TONY WATIMA
Last week in Niamey, the capital of Niger, Nigeria and Benin signed the Africa Continental Free Trade Area agreement bringing the countries that have committed to the Free Trade agreement to 54 out of 55, Eritrea being the only country yet to commit.
The Continental Free Trade came into force in May after 24 countries ratified the agreement, Kenya being among the countries that have ratified the deal.
Africa Continental Free Trade Area covers an area more than four times the size of the European Union creating a single market of 1.2 billion people by removing existing trade barriers across African countries’ borders presenting enormous economic opportunities.
Fact of the matter is that the future of international trade rules will no longer be set by the WTO but by such mega regionals (continental and regional trade agreements in terms of volumes of trade as well as scope of substantive rules) therefore the Africa Continental Free Trade Area arrangement will make the Africa continent a more meaningful player in influencing global trade rules.
A lot of existing intra-African trade takes place within established economic blocs and customs union, therefore, opening the continent into one single market is a huge milestone. Its estimated that if current bilateral tariffs among African countries are eliminated intra-Africa trade will increase by up to 52 percent. Also, if the continent removes nontariff barriers with countries outside Africa it could increase trade and boost the continent’s tariff revenues by up to $15 billion
Source: Business Daily